Gorham's Cave: Neanderthal habitations and sea-level changes in Gibraltar

Gorham's Cave, located in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, is considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals in Europe. Discovered in 1907 by Captain A. Gorham, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is located on the southeastern face of the Rock of Gibraltar. Initially, the cave was approximately 5 km (3.1 mi) from the shore, but is now just a few metres from the Mediterranean Sea due to changes in sea level.

After its initial discovery by Captain A. Gorham, it seems the cave was forgotten - at least at an official level - as Gibraltarian historian and potholer George Palao recalls an inscription on the cave wall that read J. J. Davies 1943. Royal Engineers Keighley and Ward were the first to report artefacts of archaeological interest in the cave via the Gibraltar newspapers, finding pottery and stone tools. They also reported that human and animal remains had been discovered in the cave.

Lieutenant George Baker Alexander, a Royal Engineer and graduate geologist, was the first to excavate Gorham’s Cave in 1945 before departing in 1948. Later, Dr. John d'Arcy Waechter, a fellow of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, began excavations in September 1948. He returned several times, including in 1950 and 1952, until 1954 when he successfully requested financial assistance from the local government to complete his work.

In 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 40,000 year-old Neanderthal cave chamber in the Gorham's Cave Complex. This site contains four layers of stratigraphy: Level I shows Phoenician use from the eighth to third centuries BC; Level II shows brief Neolithic use; Level III yielded at least 240 Upper Paleolithic artefacts of Magdalenian and Solutrean origin; and Level IV produced 103 items, including spear-points and knives identified as Mousterian. AMS dating for Level IV gives dates between 33 and 23 thousand years before the present.

While no fossil remains have been found to identify the specific inhabitants, researchers found a series of criss-crossing lines cut into a ledge about 100 metres from the cave entrance. These scratches, which consist of eight lines arranged in two groups of three long lines intersected by two shorter ones, cover an area of around 1 m2. The markings are thought to be at least 39,000 years old because they were found below a layer of undisturbed sediment containing hundreds of Neanderthal stone tools.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons